Paradise Lost

It was my mate’s birthday. He was going to turn 14. I wanted to get him something really special because I have known him since we were two years old. My mum told me that we were both born in the same hospital in London but then we moved to Germany because my dad had had found a really good job.

After a couple of years my mum got bored and couldn’t take anymore of where she lived and told dad that she wanted to go back to London because she preferred it there and she knew more people. They both had a massive argument and stopped talking for weeks and weeks but eventually my dad apologised to mum and told her to move back into London and that he’ll supply us with money and everything we need and he’ll visit us once in a while. They promised each other that they’ll write to each other every other week.

Eventually mum found a job at an office, she was this mans secretary. This man was no ordinary man he scared me a little. He seemed really weird. He would always mutter something to mum every time he saw me it really freaked me out. As time went by my mum started to talk about dad less and she stopped replying to all his mail. I was really worried about her and really felt sorry for dad.

Eventually mum phoned him, I had just walked home from a long boring, bad day from school and I was just about to slam the front door when I heard mums voice “Harry, listen to me this is really not going to work out……….” I stood silent for a minute. I silently shut the front door and walked closer to the kitchen. Then I heard my mum speak again, “listen, I’ve been meaning to tell you, I mean……….. um… oh I can’t do this” then she slammed the phone down and ran out the room crying. I was thinking to myself oh mum ‘what have you done you poor silly woman’. I was really surprised of what just happened and couldn’t even get myself to comfort her, it was like I wanted her to suffer for what had just happened.

I walked upstairs really slowly trying to process through my mind what had just happened when I heard my mum sobbing and speaking to someone. I was thinking who the hell is she talking to or is my mum just beginning to go mad. I crept up to her room, her door was slightly ajar and I peeked through and jumped back in surprise and gasped. I ran to my room and slammed the door shut. My windows rattled for 2mins straight. I jumped on my bed and covered my head under the pillow and let out my anger and cried all night. I must have dosed off.

When I woke up I peered at my clock sleepily, it showed 08:59. I jumped out o bed and quickly slipped my school uniform and gathered my books and went to run out my door when something threw my door open and started walking towards me with its arms outstretched and covered in a cloth hiding its identity.

It was about knee high and scared the living daylights out of me. It picked up my baseball bat and held it in the swinging position and turned round and walked back towards me raising the bat as it closer. It was only a few inches away when I opened my mouth to scream. Nothing came out and the thing just swung for me. I closed my eyes and waited for the pain.

After a few seconds I opened my eyes again and saw my mum and Steve (my mums boss) standing by the doorway in the same clothes they were in yesterday with a very large grin on their faces. That was another thing I forgot about ‘what the hell is he doing still here from last night’.

Mum tells me that she and dad broke up because dad didn’t care for them anymore. I know that wasn’t the truth but played along with it. I know it was really Steve who made her do it. That’s why he was in her room that day.

I forgot about the whole thing and Steve told me he bought the robot for me as a present to show me that he will look after me really well. I just nodded and didn’t smile. I think he got the picture and he just said to me ‘if you need anything just ask’, and then he went. I was playing with the robot that day after school and I put the controller down and turned round to go on the internet on my computer when a heard a funny, whirring sound just like my………………………ROBOT!!!

I turn around and the robot was on my desk, and I left him on the floor. I screamed at the top of my pitch and nobody came. Everyone had gone out, I assumed. I picked up the robot and threw it across the room the leg and arm fell off. I left it there and fell asleep.

I got up the next morning and remembered it was Jamie’s birthday. He was my best friend. I forgot to get him a present. He was going to be mad at me when I got into school. After I got change and had my breakfast I went up to pick up my bag and as I stepped into my room I heard a crunch. I looked down and I saw that I had just broken the other leg. I looked at the robot and it gave me an idea.

I went into school with a large box wrapped in read wrapping paper. I gave it to Jamie and I never saw him smile so much in his life. He thanked me and invited me for a sleepover that night. I delightfully said of course.

I got home from school and there was a note on the kitchen table written by mum saying that she has gone away on an emergency business meeting and that she won’t be back for a couple of days. I didn’t think much of it.

I made my way over to Jamie’s and I could swear that something was following me. I turned round every now and then but all I could see was my shadow. I got to his doorstep and I pressed the doorbell relieved that I made to his house without any trouble. Jamie’s dad answered it gave me a smile and took my bags an told me that mum phoned asking If I could stay round Jamie’s for a few days still she gets back. I knew Jamie’s family wouldn’t say no.

They thanked me for the present I gave Jamie and he came running down the stairs and gave me a hug and thanked me as well. I started to blush in front of his parents. We went upstairs and as I got into his room I heard his doorbell ring. I went to answer it but his mum said she’ll get it. As she opened the door Jamie’s dad asked who it was and before I could hear her reply Jamie cranked his music up. I ignored what happened and had fun in his room.

I asked Jamie what he thought of his present. He told me he loved it but he had a funny look on his face like he was trying to change the subject. I asked him where it was and he said his dad put it in the attic because it seemed violent. I asked him to get it. Jamie said that he’ll get into trouble but he said he’ll get it anyway.

I waited for him for 20mins and he didn’t return. I went to his attic and he wasn’t there. I saw blood trails on the floor and I was really frightened. I followed them and they leaded to the kitchen. I entered slowly and peered through. I stood in silence and screamed as I saw Jamie’s mum, dad and Jamie all in a pile with vicious stab marks in their bodies. I turned away to run and I saw, I wasn’t sure if I was looking at it…………. The robot was alive. It started moving towards me wit a butcher’s knife in its hand and it stopped.

Someone entered the room behind it with a hooded cloak. He looked up at me and smile. I could only see his mouth. He let out a evil laugh and said “now I can have your mum all to myself” and laughed continuously and the robot through the knife and it went right through my heart and just as I was closing my eyes, the figure unmasked itself……….. “Steve……….” I said before I crashed to the ground. Then my eyes shut.

Critics abroad have argued about who the hero is of John Milton’s “Paradise Lost:” Satan, Adam or Christ, the Son? Since Milton’s overall theme stated in the opening lines of Book I is to relate ‘Man’s first disobedience’ and to ‘justify the ways of God to men’, Adam must be regarded as the main hero. John M. Steadman supports this view in an essay on “Paradise Lost:” “It is Adam’s action which constitutes the argument of the epic. Steadman continues: The Son and Satan embody heroic archetypes and that, through the interplay of the infernal and celestial strategies, Milton represents Satan’s plot against man and Christ’s resolution to save him as heroic enterprises. Christ and Satan are therefore epic machines. (268-272) Although Satan may be an epic machine, he is best portrayed as the tragic anti-hero of “Paradise Lost” or, at the very least, a main character who possesses the stature and attributes which enable him to achieve tragic status.

In the Greek tradition, the essential components of tragedy are admiration, fear and pity for the ‘hero’, who has to display a tragic weakness or flaw in his character, which will lead to his downfall. It might be argued that the flaws in Satan’s character are such that we should feel no admiration, fear or pity for him, yet he can be seen to inspire these emotions. Satan’s tragic flaws are pointed out in Book I. They are envy, pride, and ambition towards self-glorification.

Satan’s pride, in particular, is stressed throughout Paradise Lost. In accordance with epic convention, Satan is frequently qualified by Milton’s use of the word ‘proud’. Virgil used the same device in his epic the Aeneid, in which the name of Aeneas rarely appears without being preceded by ‘pious’. The most striking visual example of Satan’s main weaknesses appears in Book IV (89-90) during Raphael’s narrative to Adam regarding the battles in Heaven, Raphael refers to Satan as ‘the proud/Aspirer’. Proud’ at the end of one line and ‘Aspirer’ at the beginning of the next gives equal emphasis and impact to Satan’s pride and ambition and it is implied that, in Satan, the two characters are inseparable and of equal importance. Milton, in fact, defended his use of blank verse as a suitable vehicle for epic poetry, as opposed to the frequently favored heroic couplet. How then, does Satan inspire the feelings of admiration, fear and pity necessary to a tragic figure? Milton was, undoubtedly, conscious that he was in danger of portraying Satan as too much of a heroic figure and made efforts to belittle im through the use of unflattering imagery, and by highlighting his less complimentary characteristics. Nonetheless, our emotions are still fired. Our first encounter with Satan and his rebel hosts occurs in Book I when they are recovering from the shock of having been expelled from heaven by the Son after three days of fighting the angels of God. Despite the defeat he has suffered, Satan gains our admiration by displaying resilience in quickly coming to terms with the change in his circumstances, in remustering his forces and organizing the building of his palace, Pandemonium.

At the same time he demonstrates his determination not to be defeated and shows true qualities of leadership, persuasively arguing that there is still hope for battle and victory. Satan is convincing in his first speech to Beelzebub, his chief partner in crime, as he declares: What though the field be lost? All is not lost; the unconquerable will, And study of revenge, immortal hate, And courage never to submit or yield: And what is else not to be overcome? That glory never shall his wrath or might Extort from me. (I. 105-111) The language here is particularly powerful and the lines are extremely weighted, underlining Satan’s resolution.

He similarly instills renewed resolve in his followers to challenge God and hope of regaining their former state, claiming that they are now better placed to contend because there is not fear of division in their own ranks (II. 11-42). He then gives his supporters the opportunity to speak their minds as to whether to engage in open warfare or in guile to achieve their end; although ultimately they agree the course of action he has pre-planned – that is, to introduce evil on Earth. Through Satan’s speech at the beginning of Book I, Milton emphasizes Satan’s self-glorification.

Satan has no dread of being challenged in hell because he sees himself in the most dangerous position and the one to be most severely reprimanded by God. Satan is daring, which is best demonstrated when the resolve to send someone to investigate Earth has been taken and Satan offers to undertake the task. Milton diminishes Satan’s courage by points out that Satan stands forward with bravado and purely to gain personal glory for any success he might win. Yet, Satan does not volunteer immediately but is only undertaking what his followers are afraid to attempt.

Milton’s suggestion is, however, supported by Satan’s speech itself, in which he states that he will go to Earth alone and defies any of his followers to accompany him in case they detract any of the hoped for acclaim from him. Satan’s courage is restored during Milton’s description of Satan’s journey through Chaos to Earth – in fact, the poet dedicates over 400 lines to such – (II. 629-1055) – and Satan’s exaggerated claims to his peers of the danger and difficulty of his enterprise when he returns to Hell in Book X after the seduction of Adam and Eve are not without some justification (X. 460-80).

In Book IV (917-23) when the angels guarding Paradise confront Satan, Gabriel also belittles Satan by accusing him of being less valiant than his peers and less able to endure the pain of hell. There appears to be some inconsistency during this confrontation between Satan and the angels towards the end of Book IV. Having become even more steadfast in his determination to seduce Adam and Eve against God’s will and now directing his hatred against man also as a result of his envy of their happy state (IV. 502-35), it seems inconsistent that the next time he speaks, he is so sensitive to the taunts uttered by Zephon, Ithuriel and Gabriel.

Although Satan’s scorn for the angels is still apparent, he stands ‘abashed’ and provides Gabriel with the means by which to insult him (IV. 888-90): “Lives there who loves his pain? Who would not, finding way, break loose from hell, Though thither doomed? ” It is important that we believe in the Satan as portrayed in Books I and II: Milton’s argument depends upon that belief. Satan must be seen as being of sufficient stature to attempt God’s overthrow. If Satan is considered too weak, he can pose no threat to God or to Man and there would be no reason for Milton to ‘justify the ways of God to men’.

Therefore, while making allowances for Satan’s arrogance in the opening Books of Paradise Lost, he does give the impression that he is ruling hell and it is not expedient to deliberate to what extent it is possible for Satan to succeed in his quest to corrupt God’s good works with evil. The very structure of Paradise Lost assists in creating the illusion of Satan’s power, since we first learn of the expulsion of Satan and his followers through the rebels themselves and it is not until much later when Raphael tells Adam of the wars in heaven in Books V and VI that we hear the ‘official’ version in which Satan emerges in a less favorable light.

Stanley Fish in his essay, ‘The Harassed Reader in Paradise Lost,” argues that Satan possesses a form of heroism which is easy to admire because it is visible and flamboyant and that, on that basis, Satan’s attractiveness is only initial (Fish 189-190). B Rajan, on the other hand, writes: The heroic qualities which Satan brings to his mission, the fortitude, the steadfast hate, the implacable resolution, which is founded on despair, are qualities not to be imitated or admired. They are defiled by the evil to which they are consecrated’ (Rajan 190).

Nonetheless, it is often Satan’s despair, which comes through more potently than his evil intentions. Satan’s bravado is most clearly evident in Books I and II when he is able to flaunt before his followers; by Book IV, his feeling of confidence and resolution shows signs of cracking, with Satan talking to himself he is revealing much about his inner torment and self-doubts. As his steadfastness wavers, some of his initial charisma also diminishes, as we become more aware of his ability to fall.

This argument is reinforced by Milton’s physical description of Satan. In Books I and II, Satan appears an impressive figure, “In bulk as huge/As whom the fables name of monstrous size” (I. 196-7). He is conspicuous amongst his followers because of his size and his lustre, which, although faded, outshines that of his peers (I. 589-604). On closer examination, however, it emerges that, even in Book I, Milton has been careful to downgrade Satan. Milton states that Satan “stood like a tow’r’ and that his lustre was like the sun’s through mist. The first simile is bare and unqualified and, in essence, tells us nothing about Satan’s dimensions or his stance. A tower may be any size and of too wide a variety of constructions for the simile to be of any significance. The reference to Satan’s reduced brightness is a symbol of his fall from glory and failing strength; and is mentioned by Ithuriel and Zephon in Book IV when while making fun of they suggest to Satan that his lack of lustre has made him almost unrecognizable. Our fear and pity for Satan can be considered together since they stem from the same cause.

On one level, Satan can be regarded as pitiful as much as pitiable. Although it is undoubtedly not Milton’s intention, it is almost possible to view Satan throughout in the light of sympathetic pity, especially if we accept that Satan cannot be something other than what he is no matter how much he wrestles with hons constantly shifting and mounting in intensity, the dramatic individual grows, expands, developes to the point where, at the end of the drama, he looms upon the mind as a titanic personality infinitely richer that at the beginning.

This dramatic personality in its manifold stages of actuation in as artistic creation. In essence Macbeth, like all other men, is inevitably bound to his humanity; the reason of order, as we have seen, determines his inescapable relationship to the natural and eternal law, compels inclination toward his proper act and end but provides him with a will capable of free choice, and obliges his discernment of good and evil.

Their family is then forced to leave their home town of Florence Italy by the co instant dueling of political groups in the cities, between the white Gulfs, who opposed the p papacy influence and the black Gulfs, who supported the papacy. Dante, her father, also a white Gulf supporter, went to Rome on “business” to see Pope Boniface VIII, when the black Gulfs take over the CIA TTY, the Aligner family knew that they had to escape the city in fear that they would all be killed by ca use of Dent’s political standing and the fact that he was not present in Florence.

Antonio was to fool w her brothers out of the city and their mother would meet them later, they had to run out of the city, s he saw many gruesome events of war while she was fleeing the city, she saw the true chaos that came from people during times of war. Their family had to disperse amongst their relatives and some of her b rooters even went away to become apprentices Gina went to their Uncle Francesco, while Pitter and Jackpot became ablates with the Dominicans at Santa Maria.

As for Antonio she went to stay and help with her father’s sister, Deviant, and her family, Disco her uncle who was a painter, and her cousins Margarita and Foe in Siena. As for her mother, she had went to work on her mother’s farms. Antonio lived with her aunt and uncle for nearly five years. Her mother visited her as often as she could. She worked along with Disco in his shop learning to paint, and hell peed out with the housework with Deviant, Margarita and Lecturer, Disco’s sister. She had SSH eared a bed with Margarita who was only a couple of years older than her and got to know he r real well.

One day Notation’s father sends a letter to her, inviting her to come along with him to P arise France since he will e studying at the university there, he already offered her brothers to come w tit but they could not. Shortly after Antonio receives the letter her father. Dante arrived so soon that Antonio had barely gotten to make up her mind, but she decided to go along with her father on this DVD endure. Through their travels Antonio gets a new understanding of her father. Antonio along with he r inattentive father travel from city to city spending their nights in either inns or with nobles, in their cash tiles. Pond their arrival to Paris, Dante immediately goes to into his studies in search h of new knowledge, while in the first couple of days Antonio is just sitting around the an. Eventually, Antonio met up with an old friend of her fathers, at a Beguine, a community of sings e women living under Nun like conditions but could work to make a living and could break free of an y vows and leave if they like. Antonio decided to stay with the women of the Beguine while her father r studied at the university.

The three ladies Antonio stayed with, Claire, Mated, and Assess, worked as illumination, an art form done to liven up a page of a book or a document, Antonio helped with her prior knowledge f painting. Events quickly went downhill for the group of girls, Assess died, and later her mother Claire. As for Antonio, Dante decided that the knowledge he had sought, could d not be obtained at the University and they decided to head back to Italy. Antonio had returned to Siena to stay with her Uncle Disco’s family again, who ill Dante had left her to work with the emperor of Germany and Italy.

Disco was on a new commission that had made them much wealthier, and of course everyone was much older than the y were previously. Margarita was soon to be engaged with Pitter, and Antonio had also begun t experience her share of romantic relationships, first with Seeing a loving apprentice to Disco, then Tit ere to Farina, a young man who lived in Florence, when she had moved there to live with her mother r and uncle. Yet neither one worked out, she left Siena forgetting about Seeing, and when the emperor r failed at capturing Florence, the Aligner name meant little and was hated in Florence, so Farina a didn’t want to marry her.

Notation’s Family was reunited and continued to live on in a house of their owe n in Vienna. Antonio struggled with what the true meaning of her life was to be with god. S he had gotten malaria, which she was lucky enough to surpass. Imbroglio, on of her best friends fro m back in Siena had came to visit her in her State Of illness and wanted to marry her, Antonio agrees and they live happily, until Imbroglio dies of plague. Antonio then decides, knowing her fate, to join the c invent of San Stefan Dogleg Alive.

The Historical fiction novel, Dana?s Daughter had gotten many things right with barely any wrongful descriptions, the author, Kimberly Houston surely did their homework. Not only did she write this novel accurately she did it in SST of the different aspects of the book. Whether it was from their lifestyle of different social classes, like what they ate, wore and how they lived, the way they traveled, the events that happened in the time period of the early fourteenth century, their beliefs, and even the fact that most of the characters actually existed in this time period.

The author portrayed the lifestyles of the people in the book very realistically. The roles of women in the 1300′ in actuality was to stay home maintain the household, cooking, cleaning and taking care of the children, which was the name roles the author portrayed, the mothers of different households always prepared their food and spent the day cleaning and tidying up the house. Younger girls like Antonio in the novel helped with such chores like the laundry. In the novel they did the laundry down at the river which was common in that era (McKay, John P. ). Antonio mother wore a turban when she would clean, which was also accurately explained.

Clothing worn by characters was only described for the females, it was always gowns with different colors, always handmade by the mothers of the household, and silk as very dressy and expensive. In history, it was common for families to make their own clothing and women only really wore gowns, silk was of the most valuable cloth in this time frame as well (McKay, John As for the common diet of Italians in the thirteen hundreds, consisted mostly of bread, which was the most important staple of their diet and stews, made of whatever ingredients they could get.

Houston wrote about what they would eat, they would always eat bread with olive oil, and Notation’s mother would always have the best soups made from the best ingredients she could mind, which would have been correct for the time period and the wealth of the Aligner family. Between the pair of Antonio and Dante, when they were traveling they had a mule and horse, which only the higher class could afford since many poor pilgrims could only travel on foot which was accurate for the time too.

The Nobility that Dante and Antonio stayed with also had a very descriptive lifestyle differing from the Aligner family. The upper class lived in large palaces or castles and had feasts very often, in which they ate exotic foods, crayfish, eels in plum sauce, asparagus, cheese tarts, green beans eked in almond milk, roast venison with garlic, partridge stewed with lentils and shallots, chicken cooked with pears and brandy, tiny spring lettuces dressed with olive oil and perceive, junket, strawberry tarts, and many other dishes.

The nobility also had the ability to house many subjects they sought useful for their skills. There were two major patrons of Dante, lady Cluenice, and Can Grandee. In history little is known about the true paths Dante had taken, there is no account of him staying with a lady Cluenice, but there is documentation of him staying with Can Grandee for the reason of Can Grandee’s interests in the importance and reasoning behind The Divine Comedy, that Dante was writing the evidence is found in the letter that Dante had written to Can Grandee explaining the books (Aligner, Dante).

Dante Aligner was a famous poet in the time period who had written many books the three parts that make up The Divine Comedy, Inferno, Purgatorial, and Paradise, all mentioned in the book plus his writings of other books, and The Banquet, although over fifty poetic works are known from Dante. Antonio was very fascinated by the large structures of the gigantic cathedrals in Paris, mainly Notre dame. She was very intrigued, and found peace amongst its’ large mosaics held together by lead.

This account was very accurate, Notre dame is famous for its’ large mosaics, and it started its construction in 1160 and finished in 1345, well within Notation’s lifetime. Kimberly Houston portrayed the lifestyles of different social groups very accurately throughout the novel. There was one common disease that multiple people contracted throughout the happening of the book, and it was malaria, a disease carried by mosquito. Antonio had contracted it, and during the time it was almost a death sentence (McKay, John P. , yet she survived through it.

Antonio had experienced immense pain and was deathly ill, for a couple of weeks, then would endure eight hour long fevers and intense pain that would go away and return two days later. Antonio went through series of pains much like the actual symptoms which were, headaches, fever, lethargy, chills, abdominal pains, sickness, muscular pains, diarrhea, and coughing fits. Kimberly Houston had shown the symptoms characters were experiencing accurately as they would be in the real world. The common scientific beliefs of people in the novel were also of accurate details in the novel.

Accurately for this time, people in the story believed in the Ptolemaic system. Which stated that the heavens rotated on big crystal spheres around the earth. This was the common belief until 1 543, when Copernicus published On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres, which proved the earth was not at the center Of the universe (McKay, John Many of the events that took place in the book happened in real life. In the book, King Phillips armies had harried Boniface VII to death, and engineered Clement V into office, and brought the papacy into France.

While written accurately, the papacy was stationed in Avignon, France in 1309, in the time frame covered in the book, and in fact it was King Philip IV that that is responsible for both moving the papacy and bringing in a tradition of having French popes. Another event including King Philip IV of France is that there is a scene from the book where the Knights Template and everyone associated with them are being arrested for the Kings’ benefit. What the book failed to mention is the reasoning behind Philip Avis’ actions and motives of this action.

King Philip IV was very much in debt to the Template, whereas in the novel had explained it s the ‘Template were engaged in unnatural and illegal activities offensive to god… ” (Houston, Kimberley Burton), which was not true since the Template Were a strictly ran group, by the pope, to be a religious army, but King Philip did have them arrested in real history for his own benefit. The Template, described by Houston, were very large, muscular men, with the knowledge of scholars, which is an accurate description of the way the Knights Template would have been since they were knights.

Antonio along with the other women of the Beguine, had done work for the Template illuminating comments, which would have been against the code of the Template to have any contact with women (Temporarily. Com). Another event that took place was the newly elected emperor Henry VII, who in the novel was convinced by Dante Aligner to march on Florence to capture it amongst his empire and to hopefully redeem the Aligner name in Florence, Italy.

The holy roman emperor Henry VII of Germany historically had the support of Dante, and did wage war on Romancer since they were part of the Gulfs, both Dante and Henry VII were Gibberellins (McKay, John P). Yet another event that occurred in he book happened in Verona, Italy, it was that the palace that Can Grandee lived in was frescoed by an artist named Ghetto, nothing is known of his work in Verona, Ghost’s Personality in the book was that he was very enthusiastic and compassionate towards art, he also had a very high pitch girl laugh, Not much is known of his personality although he did work on many frescoes.

In addition, the Aligner Family was forced to leave their hometown of Florence by cause of the dueling political parties, the Gibberellins and the Gulfs, which were actual groups at the time which either liked the pope’s influence on everything or despised it.

Lastly, the fall of Rome to the Byzantines and barbarians who began to construct huge basilicas with large mosaics on the interior, was mentioned towards the latter part of the book, the Byzantines had actually built these large basilicas although it was really the decline of the holy roman empire that brought in these Byzantines and barbarians to influence Rome (McKay, John The options a women could take throughout their life was described in the book as, if they did not get married, they could use their dowry from their parents to join a convent and become a nun, join a Beguine, or become a requisite.

This statement made in the book by Antonio is not completely true, not only could women become housewives, nuns, or prostitutes, but they could also work as servants or join a Beguine. In the book none of the younger people had known about Beguines, and even when Antonio had found out she only thought that they existed in France. Although many of the surviving Beguines exist in Belgium albeit there was one in France, and many of the ancient Beguines had existed on the outskirts of Paris, the Beguine described in the book, sounded like it was nearly in the center Of

Paris, because it was within a short walking distance to important areas like shops and Dante could be there quickly to visit, plus there were buildings they went to on both sides of the Beguine. The tools and procedures used by the different artistic professions were described briefly in the novel, it had listed the linoleum, what processes they would make paints and glues for frames, and the different layers in a fresco. The linoleum was a moon shaped knife meant for preparing parchment by scraping the excess skin and hairs off of pelts.

This linoleum knife was actually seed almost exclusively for illuminating because illuminating required a special type of medium to be written on (“Illumination parchment). Antonio had known the preparation steps to make this parchment from learning it from Disco he uncle, who was an artist, one would take calf skin stretch it out, scrape the excess skin and impurities from it, then split it into separate sheets until of desirable thickness, and then scrape it again with the linoleum to get rid of any shiny surfaces.

This process of manufacturing parchment was common through the middle ages and into the Renaissance (Differences teens Parchment, Vellum and Paper. ). When Disco was working on the Masses;, an actual painting done in sienna by the real Disco (Disco Did Obnoxiousness, Masses; Altarpiece), him and his apprentices, would always be asking for egg whites from the girls to mix with pigments from plants, and asking for cheeses which they would use to make their glues to put together frames. Egg whites were in fact used to make the popular paint tempera during the Renaissance, and so was cheese used inn glues during this time period.

The base layers of frescoes described in the novel, by Houston, was Ricoh, and intonation, these were the easiest and required the least artistic ability out of the whole Fresco process, and they were the top finishing layer and the base starting layer (“Categories Terms”. ). The author had gotten every detail right, when it came to the tools and procedures that had been used in the making of the artwork in the story. The river systems as described in the novel were the Aaron River of Florence, and the Adage River of Verona.

The Main character Antonio had described the Aaron River as Very muddy and not very navigable whereas the Adage River in Verona was better navigable and as a result had more trade coming in. The Aaron River in Florence has many tributaries which makes it harder to navigate and the Adage River does not making it easier to navigate. In Conclusion, the author, Kimberly Houston, did a very good job in the development of Dent’s Daughter. She had gotten about ninety-nine percent of the detail, events and people right in the development of this book.

She had made the fiction life of actual characters very accurate and convincing for the time period. She had gotten the tools and procedures for certain artistic jobs right or the time frame, the correct people doing the right events in the right year, correct descriptions of travel and the river ways, the ways certain groups acted, the food they ate, the clothes they wore, the ideology of the common people, the side effects of malaria, artistic terms, and even the existence Of certain characters and their connection in history.

Sympathy for Satan John Milton spent years trying to think of an idea to base his epic on; an idea that would make his epic last centuries and never be forgotten. His desire came to life since his work lives in history, along with Homer, Virgil and Dante. Finally, he found a muse in God and in the dawn of creation; rather than in earthly matters. John Milton’s intention while writing his epic was not to make Satan a hero, however, many people perceive such an idea. Instead, he simply wanted to display his optimistic view of life; the fact that goodness is not goodness unless it resulted from a struggle to overcome evil.

Thus, Milton focuses Satan and his dishonorable deeds in order to highlight God’s kindness and goodness. Moreover, “Paradise Lost” includes Satan’s side of the story. Throughout the epic, many traits and characteristics that Milton attributes to Satan make him seam appealing or forgivable. One source of Satan’s fascination for us is that he is an extremely complex and subtle character. It would be difficult, perhaps impossible, for Milton to make perfect, infallible characters such as God the Father, God the Son, and the angels as interesting to read about as the flawed characters, such as Satan, Adam, and Eve.

Satan, moreover, strikes a grand and majestic figure, apparently unafraid of being damned eternally, and uncowed by such terrifying figures as Chaos or Death. Many readers have argued that Milton deliberately makes Satan seem heroic and appealing early in the poem to draw us into sympathizing with him against our will, so that we may see how seductive evil is and learn to be more vigilant in resisting its appeal. Milton devotes much of the poem’s lines to developing Satan’s character. Satan’s greatest fault is his pride.

He casts himself as an innocent victim, overlooked for an important promotion. But his ability to think so selfishly in Heaven, where all angels are equal and loved and happy, is surprising. His confidence in thinking that he could ever overthrow God displays tremendous vanity and pride. When Satan shares his pain and alienation as he reaches Earth in his soliloquy, we may feel somewhat sympathetic to him or even identify with him. But Satan continues to devote himself to evil. Every speech he gives is fraudulent and every story he tells is a lie.

He works diligently to trick his fellow devils in Hell by having Beelzebub present Satan’s own plan of action. These characteristics are presented throughout Satan’s first and final soliloquy in “The Fall of Satan”; “Here we may reign secure, and in to reign is worth ambition, thought in Hell: better to reign in Hell than serve in Heaven”. Satan is far from being the story’s object of admiration, as most heroes are. Yet there are many compelling qualities to his character that make him intriguing to readers.

Satan is the first major character introduced in the poem. Formerly called Lucifer, the most beautiful of all angels in Heaven, he’s a tragic figure who describes himself with the now-famous quote “Better to reign in Hell, than serve in Heav’n. ” He is introduced to Hell after he leads a failed rebellion to wrestle control of Heaven from God. Satan’s desire to rebel against his creator stems from his unwillingness to be subjugated by God and his Son, claiming that angels are “self-begot, self-raised”,thereby denying

God’s authority over them as their creator. Satan is deeply arrogant, albeit powerful and charismatic. Satan’s persuasive powers are evident throughout the book; not only is he cunning and deceptive, but he also is able to rally the angels to continue in the rebellion after their agonising defeat in the Angelic War. He argues that God rules as a tyrant and that all the angels ought to rule as gods. Satan is comparable in many ways to the tragic heroes of classic Greek literature, but Satan’s hubris far surpasses those of previous tragedies.

Though at times he plays the narrative role of an anti-hero, he is still commonly understood to be the antagonist of the epic. However, the true nature of his role in the poem has been the subject of much notoriety and scholarly debate. While some scholars, like the critic and writer C. S. Lewis, interpret the poem as a genuine Christian morality tale, other critics, like William Empson, view it as a more ambiguous work, with Milton’s complex characterisation of Satan playing a large part in that perceived ambiguity.

Satan as the Hero of Paradise Lost Satan Arousing the Rebel Angels, William Blake (1808) Leontien Kouwenhoven 1260707 Supervisor: Dr. J. R. Veenstra Second Reader: Prof. Dr. A. A. MacDonald 06-03-2009 Doctoraalscriptie Engelse Taal- en Cultuur Faculteit der Letteren Rijksuniversiteit Groningen Wordcount: 17. 325 Table of Contents 1. Introduction 1 2. Background 5 3. Satan 13 4. Hell 21 5. Sin 30 6. Conclusion 39 7. Works Cited 43 1. Introduction Can the devil be an epic hero? This seems to be the case in John Milton’s Paradise Lost, the great epic from the English Renaissance.

Milton’s Satan is brave, resourceful and powerful and an excellent leader as well. When reading the work, after a few pages, the reader may indeed get the impression that Satan is an epic hero. However, this idea does not last for long; when one reaches Book III, the favourable image of Satan as a heroic freedom fighter deteriorates and in the end he is transformed into a beast. Milton’s description of Satan stands in a long tradition of representations of the devil in European literature. One of the greatest earlier works that gives us an image of the devil is Dante’s La Divina Commedia, also a work of epic proportion.

Dante’s Commedia will be used in this essay as a contrast to Milton’s epic: Dante’s Devil seems to be the complete opposite of Milton’s Satan. He is motionless, frozen in ice and represents a passive evil. This essay will try to answer the question whether or not the devil can be an epic hero. And if not, whether or not he can be another kind of hero? The descriptions of the devil in Dante and Milton are strongly influenced by their respective world views. Milton’s Renaissance perspective is different form Dante’s medieval outlook. Satan’s heroic status owes a lot to the Renaissance world view.

With the books and articles written on Paradise Lost and La Divina Commedia, one could fill a library. However, some articles and books have been very useful in writing this essay. To give some examples, John Steadman has written many articles on John Milton and Paradise Lost, of which “The Idea of Satan as the Hero of Paradise Lost” and “Milton and St. Basil: The Genesis of Sin and Death” and “Milton and Mazzoni: the Genre of the Divina Commedia” have been particularly relevant. A book which gives an excellent insight in the medieval world view is C. S.

Lewis’ The Discarded Image, which is very suitable in obtaining background information on both La Divina Commedia and Paradise Lost. Another work which provides relevant information on the history of the devil is Jeffrey Burton Russel’s Lucifer: The Devil in the Middle Ages, which gives an elaborate analysis of the position of the devil in society and literature. Singleton’s translation of Dante’s La Divina Commedia is used throughout this paper1. The translation is very good, but more importantly, Singleton added extensive notes and commentaries in separate volumes.

In finding out what kind of hero Satan might be, Peter Thorslev’s The Byronic Hero has been most helpful. 1 Alighieri, Dante. The Divine Comedy: Inferno 1. Trans. Charles S. Singleton. New Jersey: Princeton: University Press, 1970. English translations of Italian quotes from La Divina Commedia have been taken from Singleton’s translation. The second chapter of this essay will provide background information on John Milton and his Paradise Lost and Dante and his La Divina Commedia. Both works can be regarded as epics and this chapter will give information on epics in general, the epic in the Renaissance and on the epic hero.

Also, this chapter will discuss the epic conventions which can be found in both La Divina Commedia and Paradise Lost. Furthermore, some attention will be given to the authors themselves and their works. If Paradise Lost is an epic, then the work should contain an epic hero. The most likely character to be the hero would be Satan. This third chapter will analyse whether or not Satan can be the epic hero of Milton’s work. Romantic critics such as William Blake and Lord Byron argue that Satan is indeed the hero of the work, especially when taking into consideration books I and II of Paradise Lost.

There were also critics, nowadays referred to as Anti-Satanists, who disagree with this. They generally find Satan’s speeches pompous and ridiculous and his behaviour despicable. Furthermore, these critics also take into consideration what happens to Satan after books I and II, in which Satan’s ethical and moral decline becomes apparent: as the story advances he experiences a strong regression and all his seemingly heroic traits are reduced to nothing. In establishing the heroic status of Satan, three separate elements will be analysed.

The first one is Satan’s actions; the second is his appearance, and, thirdly, Satan’s character will be given attention. In Paradise Lost, Satan has a complex character, worthy of a hero. One thing that these three elements have in common is that in the beginning of Paradise Lost, they are described as being heroic: Satan’s courageous actions, his splendid exterior and brave character. However, as the story progresses, Satan loses his heroic qualities. He tricks Adam and Eve into their Fall, a non-heroic action. Furthermore, he realises that Hell is inside him and is part of his being, which shows a digression of his character.

And finally, he turns into a snake, losing his former angelic appearance. Contrastingly, Dante’s Satan has no heroic qualities at all. He is an ugly brute, not able to move. He is a passive devil, as opposed to the active and well-established Satan in Paradise Lost. Dante’s Lucifer does not need many qualities attributed to him, heroic or otherwise. His role in the plot of La Divina Commedia is very limited: he is nothing more than a mere negation of God. The fourth chapter deals with Hell, since the greater part of Satan’s heroic behaviour in Paradise Lost takes place in Hell.

It is not unusual for an epic hero to be placed in Hell or the underworld: the Aeneid and the Odyssey are famous works that refer to the underworld as well. However, these classical epics are not set entirely in Hades: only part of the tale is about the journey of the hero into the Underworld. Contrastingly, Satan travels out of Hell and returns to it during the poem and it forms the basis of the journey, as opposed to Aeneas and Odysseus, who have Earth as their basis. Milton’s Hell lacks order, which provides Satan with the freedom to manifest himself as leader and organiser.

Hell in Paradise Lost gives Satan the opportunity to be a hero: the chains on the fiery lake are too weak to hold him and he can travel straight out of Hell without many obstacles. This lack of order in Hell stands in shrill contrast to the order of Heaven: Satan and the fallen angels have disrupted that natural order, so that now they are forced to dwell in a place where nature seems to make no sense and is chaotic. Contrastingly, the location of the devil in Dante’s Hell is very precise: he is located in the deepest pit. He is frozen in ice and not able to move.

Whereas Milton’s Hell facilitates Satan’s active movement, Dante’s Hell does not provide this opportunity. The universe of Milton is very loosely structured: Heaven is above and Hell below, separated by Chaos, with Earth hanging down from Heaven by a golden chain. Later on in the poem, a bridge is created by Satan which links Earth to Hell. But when it comes to describing where precisely Hell is located and what it looks like, Milton explains this in a manner which does not reveal much about distances and dimensions. Hell is described as a “bottomless perdition” (I. 47)2 or the “vast and boundless Deep” (I. 47). Hell seems to have no borders, it is infinitely large. Yet it does have walls and gates: “Our prison strong, this huge convex of Fire, / Outrageous to devour, immures us round / Ninefold, and gates of burning Adamant / Barr’d over us prohibit all egress” (II. 434-437). This forms a contrast to Dante’s Hell, which is very ordered and consists of nine concentric circles. In every circle of Hell, Dante meets the souls that are allocated to their respective circle to undergo their eternal punishment. The fifth chapter of this essay will investigate the role of sin in Paradise Lost and La Divina Commedia.

In Paradise Lost, Satan’s heroic deeds are actually rooted in sin and the sins that Satan commits make him lose his heroic status. Although Satan’s deeds may be labelled heroic when looking at books I and II, his motives are impure. The most important of these underlying motives are the sins of pride, envy and wrath. It was the sin of pride that led Satan into rebelling against God, thus causing the war in Heaven: Pride forms the beginning of Satan’s ‘heroic’ adventure. However, envy also plays a large role: Satan is envious of Christ as well as Adam and Eve. Quotations of Paradise Lost have been taken from: Milton, John. Paradise Lost. Ed. Christopher Ricks. 1968. London: Penguin Group, 1989. Dante uses the order of the seven deadly sins of pride, envy, lust, gluttony, greed, sloth and wrath to structure his Inferno. He keeps a strict order in his Hell, this is because sin disrupts the divine order and those who have sinned have caused chaos in this order. Dante distributes the punishment for the seven deadly sins very neatly over concentric circles, with a systematic increase in wickedness.

The souls of the damned are subjected to this order and are allocated according to their sins. Contrastingly, Milton does not follow this medieval list of seven sins. A very relevant reference to sins is the allegory of Satan, Sin and Death as an incestuous family. Satan has a daughter called Sin and together they have a son: Death. Sin is Satan’s first child, and she is brought into the world thanks to Satan’s disobedience to God. The fact that Satan and his daughter Sin have a child called Death, makes death the inevitable consequence of sin.

Although Milton perhaps did not intentionally incorporate the seven deadly sins in his work and although pride, envy and wrath are the most important sins of the work, the other four sins of lust, gluttony, greed and sloth can also be found in the poem and will also receive attention in this chapter. Additionally, some attention will be given to another well-known account of sin and Hell from the Romantic period, namely William Blake’s The Marriage of Heaven and Hell. The analyses made in the chapters mentioned above will make it possible to answer the question whether or not Satan can be an epic hero.

And if he is not an epic hero, can he be regarded as another kind of hero? It is interesting that throughout the centuries, many scholars have shared the opinion that Satan is indeed the hero of the work, while others have strongly opposed this view. This concluding chapter will investigate further how these two opposing views came into existence and will try to give an answer to the question. 2. Background This chapter will provide background information on John Milton’s Paradise Lost (1667) and Dante Alighieri’s La Divina Commedia (1321).

Both works are epics and are widely considered to be masterpieces that are still read today. This chapter will give some general information on epics, as well as the epic in the Renaissance period and why La Divina Commedia and Paradise Lost can be considered as epics. Furthermore, attention will be given to the epic hero. However, first of all we must focus on the authors themselves and their works. It seems likely that Milton when writing his Paradise Lost, was inspired not only by Dante’s vision of Hell, but also by Classical literature. Milton had an exceptionally great knowledge of La Divina Commedia. David Masson states in his Life of Milton, that Milton ‘must have known this great poem better than any other Englishman alive’ and remarks that Milton read the Commedia ‘attentively and reverently. ’ Milton studied the Italian language and during his Cambridge years he widely read in Dante, Petrarch, and other Italian poets. In a letter to Benedetto Buonmattei, the leading Dante-expert of the day, he writes of the depth of his study of Italian literature, especially the works of Petrarch and Dante. Milton even provides an English poetic translation of a few lines from the Inferno in his work Of Reformation. This information and the many similarities between the two works may indicate that Milton was inspired to use the genre of the epic for his work, as applied by Dante and by classical authors before him. Dante finished his Commedia in 1321 and he is considered to be one of the greatest poets of all times. His La Divina Commedia can be regarded as one of the works of art that initiate the beginning of the Renaissance in Italy. 5 The story tells of the character Dante, who travels through the afterlife. The work consists of three different parts, containing Dante’s journey through Hell, Purgatory and Heaven.

The work had quite an impact and it had a wide range of audiences: students read it in grammar school and the work was discussed in the marketplace and even in church. One of the main reasons for this impact is probably the fact that is was written in the vernacular as opposed to many works written in Latin. 6 It was 3 Butler, George F. Giants and Fallen Angels in Dante and Milton: The Commedia and the Gigantomachy in Paradise Lost. Modern Philology. 95. 3 (1998): p. 352. 4 Butler, George F. The Fall of Tydeus and the Failure of Satan: Statius’ Thebaid, Dante’s Commedia, and Milton’s Paradise Lost. Comparative Literature Studies. 3. 1-2 (2006): p. 143. 5 Lewis, R. W. B. Dante: a Life. London: Phoenix, 2002: p. 15. 6 Parker, Deborah. Commentary and Ideology: Dante in the Renaissance. Durham: Duke University Press, 1993: pp. 28-31. Boccacio who added the word Divina to the title of the work, stressing the divine meaning it contains. In literature, an epic is a grand narrative poem in majestic style about the exploits and adventures of a superhuman hero engaged in a quest or some serious endeavour. The hero is distinguished above all others by his strength and courage. The subject-matter of epic includes myth, legend, history, and folk tale.

Battles and perilous journeys play a large part, as do gods, the supernatural, and magic; scenes are often set in the Underworld or in Heaven. Certain formal features are conspicuous: the narrator vouches for the truth of his story; there are invocations, elaborate greetings, long speeches, detailed similes, digressions, and the frequent repetition of elements typical of an epic. 7 There is a standard distinction between traditional and literary epics. Traditional epics are works such as the Iliad and the Odyssey, while literary epics were composed in deliberate imitation of the traditional form.

Literary epics do not necessarily have to contain all of the epic conventions as the ones mentioned above, as long as it manifests the epic spirit and grandeur in the scale, the scope and the human importance of their subjects. 8 So, works do not have to comply to all the epic conventions in order to be called an epic. It is not difficult to apply the label of an epic to Paradise Lost, since it contains many epic conventions. La Divina Commedia may not contain an epic hero or lengthy descriptions of battles, but it does contain many epic features, such as the epic spirit and grandeur of the scale of the narrative.

Furthermore, the subject of the redemption of the human soul is certainly of profound human interest. The Renaissance period shows the revival of art and literature under the influence of classical models, and many literary epics were written in this period, of which La Divina Commedia and Paradise Lost are certainly the most impressive ones. Milton’s Paradise Lost is generally looked upon as the main work of the English Renaissance. The Renaissance is believed to have originated in Florence in the fourteenth century, where there was a revival of interest in classical antiquity.

Important figures of that era were Dante, Petrarch and Boccaccio, but also painters like Giotto. The period from the end of the fifteenth century has become known as the High Renaissance, when several Italian cities began to rival Florence’s leading position. Renaissance thinking spread from the early 7 “epic”, in: The Concise Oxford Companion to Classical Literature, ed. M. C. Howatson and Ian Chilvers, (Oxford University Press, 1996). Oxford Reference Online. Oxford University Press. See: www. oxfordreference. com, (16 January 2009). 8 Abrams, M. H. Glossary of Literary Terms. 1971.

Fort Worth: Harcourt Brace College Publishers, 1999: pp. 77-78. sixteenth century onwards. 9 This influence and revival of classical culture, art and literature is represented in both Paradise Lost and La Divina Commedia, notably in the framework of the setting of the underworld, which is a common literary motif of classical epic literature. Other famous literary examples with the same motif are Hercules’ journey into the underworld to capture Cerberus, Orpheus’ descent into Hades to retrieve his wife, after she had died because of a snake-bite, or Virgil’s Aeneid, in which Aeneas travels into the underworld to meet his father.

Inspired by stories such as these, Dante and later Milton wrote their epic poems. Milton had the intention of writing an epic poem on an exalted subject decades before he started writing Paradise Lost in 1658. In his At a vacation Exercise in the College (1628), he already mentioned that he wanted to devote himself to “singing in the manner of Homer” and he envisioned writing a poem concerning “wars and heaven under Jupiter”. Notes and drafts from around 1640 contain four drafts of projections of the Fall of man, one of them called Paradise Lost and another Adam unparadiz’d.

Milton spent almost twenty years writing controversial prose and political pamphlets and he was a strong supporter of liberty of conscience, human choice and free will, themes also recurring in Paradise Lost. 10 The story itself tells of the fall from heaven of Satan and the other angels who rebelled against God. Milton’s work shows many influences of the Classics and can be classified as an epic. The epic poem Paradise Lost was originally published in ten books, but from 1674 onwards the work consisted of twelve books after the Virgilian model, by splitting books seven and ten.

Paradise Lost is the poem Milton is still famous for today. 11 Paradise Lost is seen by many scholars to be one of the most sublime products of the Renaissance and especially as the great epic of that age. 12 Two very important epic conventions which can be found in both the works of Milton and Dante, are the recapitulation of the past and prophecy of the future. 13 In Paradise Lost, the recapitulation of the past takes place in book V where Raphael tells Adam the story of the war in heaven and the Fall of Satan and the other angels.

The epic convention of the prophecy can be found in books 11 and 12, where Michael reveals to Adam the future of his descendants. He tells Adam about the Flood: 9 “Renaissance”, in: The Oxford Reference Online. A Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, ed. Elizabeth Knowles, ( Oxford University Press, 2006). Oxford Reference Online. Oxford University Press. See: www. oxfordreference. com, (16 January 2009). 10 Loewenstijn, David. Milton, Paradise Lost. A Student Guide. 2nd ed. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004: pp. 10-14. 11 The Norton Anthology of English Literature. 7th ed. Vol 1. Ed. M. H. Abrams. New York: W.

W. Norton & Company, 2000: p. 1816. 12 Loewenstijn, David. Milton, Paradise Lost. A Student Guide. 2nd ed. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004: p. 16. 13 Bush, Douglas. “Virgil and Milton”. The Classical Journal. 17. 5 (1952): p. 180. …Till God at last Wearied with their iniquities, withdraw His presence from among them, and avert His holy eyes (XII. 106-109) Michael also talks about the journey of the Hebrews: Till by two brethren (those two brethren call Moses and Aaron) sent God to claim His people from enthrallment, they return With glory and spoil back to their promis’d Land (XII. 169-172)

These Biblical events that Milton mentions here, have not yet happened, but cast a look into the future. There are many other epic conventions to be found in Paradise Lost. To begin with, the work has a beginning in medias res; the work begins when Satan and the other angels that rebelled against God have already fallen: “… the Poem hastes into the midst of things, presenting Satan with his Angels now fallen into Hell” (I. Argument). Secondly, Milton uses the classical notion of the invocation of the Muse: “Sing Heaven’ly Muse” (I. 6). Another important epic convention is the elaborate descriptions of battles.

We find this in Paradise Lost when Michael tells Adam the story of the War in Heaven: “… when all the Plain / Cover’d with thick embattled Squadrons bright, / Chariots and flaming Arms, and fiery steeds / Reflecting blaze on blaze” (VI. 15-18). Milton has also incorporated epic catalogues, an example of which can be found in Book I, where there is a lengthy description of the angels that fell together with Satan into Hell: “First Moloch… ” (I. 392). Furthermore, the notion of supernatural intervention occurs when Christ offers to sacrifice himself for mankind.

Paradise Lost contains many epic similes, for example: Angel forms, who lay intranc’t Thick as Autumnal Leaves that strow the Brooks In Vallombrosa, where th’Etrurian shades High overarch’t embow’r; or scatter’d sedge Afloat, when with fierce Winds Orion arm’d Hath vext the Red-Sea Coats, whose waves o’erthrew Busiris and his Memphian Chivalry, While with perfidious hatred they pursu’d The Sojourners of Goshen, who beheld From the safe shore their floating Carcasses And broken Chariot Wheels (I. 301-311) The last significant epic convention to be found in Paradise Lost is the descent into the underworld.

Like in Milton’s Paradise Lost, there are many examples of epic conventions to be found in Dante’s La Divina Commedia. The most obvious one is the epic convention of the descent into the underworld: just as in the Aeneid, Dante’s hell consists of circles separated by geographical boundaries. 14 However, there are many more epic conventions Dante makes use of. One of them is the beginning in medias res: “Nel mezzo del cammin di nostra vita / mi ritrovai per una selva oscura” [Midway in the journey of our life I found myself in a dark wood] (Inferno I. -2). Dante also invokes the muse, as is often done in classical epics: “O Muse, o alto ingegno, or m’aiutate; / O mente che scrivesti cio ch’io vidi, / Qui si parra la tua nobilitate” [O Muses, O high genius, help me now! O memory that wrote down what I saw, here shall your worthiness appear! ] (Inferno II. 7-9). Furthermore, the work contains three events which can be classified as supernatural interventions. The first one is the moment when Dante encounters three animals on his way: a she-wolf, a leopardess and a lion, hich form an allegory of the temptations of Sin. The second intervention is when Dante meets Virgil, who is to be his guide: “Mentre ch’i’ rovinava in basso loco, / dinanzi a li occhi mi si fu offerto / Chi per lungo silenzio parea fioco” [While I was ruining down to the depth there appeared before me one who seemed faint through long silence] (Inferno I. 61-63). However, the most important intervention is that of Beatrice: “Io son Beatrice, che ti faccio andare; / vegno del loco ove tornar disio; / amor mosse che mi fa parlare. ” [I am Beatrice who sent you.

I come from a place to which I long to return. Love moved me and makes me speak. ] (Inferno II. 70-72). Beatrice is sent to help Dante when he strays from the right path in his life and she wants him to learn the knowledge he needs in order to redeem himself. Beatrice tells Dante that when she was still alive, she was his inspiration and this inspiration kept him on the straight and narrow path of a good Christian life: Quando di carne a spirto era salita E bellezza e virtu cresciuta m’era, Fu’ io a lui men cara e men gradita; 14 Feldherr, Andrew. Putting Dido on the Map: Genre and Geography in Vergil’sUnderworld”. Arethusa. 32. 1 (1999): p. 90. E volse i passi suoi per via non vera, Imagini di ben seguendo false, Che nulla promession rendono intera. [When from the flesh I ascend And beauty and virtue in me increased I was to him less dear and delightful; And into ways untrue he turned his steps, Pursuing false images of good That never any promises fulfil] (Purgatory XXX. 127-132) Beatrice’s death signified the moment that Dante’s life started to go downhill and now she is chosen to turn his life in the right direction once gain, as she had done in life. He was tempted by sin and Beatrice offers Dante a chance to purify and save his soul. Dante’s work contains many elaborate epic similes, an example of which can be found in the description of some damned souls: “Come le rane innanzi al la nimica / Biscia per l’acqua si dileguan tutte, / Fin ch’a la terra ciascuna s’abbiaca” [As the frogs before their enemy the snakes all vanish through the water, till each cocks itself on the bottom] (Inferno IX. 76-78). Dante also makes use of the epic notion of catalogues.

Especially in Canto IV, when Dante and Virgil are in Limbo, we see many of these epic lists: “Quelli e Omero, poeta sovrano; / L’altro e Orazio satiro che vene; / Ovido e ‘l terzo, e l’ultimo Lucano” [He is Homer, sovereign poet; next is Horace, satirist; Ovid comes third, and Lucan last. ] (Inferno IV. 88-90). All the characters named in this and the other catalogues, are names from the classical period, and hence proper to the epic genre. As well as Milton, Dante’s work casts a look into the future, which is an important epic convention. We find this in Dante’s conversation with Caccio, a Florentine punished in the Inferno.

Caccio tells Dante about the future of Florence and the victory of Dante’s adversaries. Dante is able to make these kinds of references to the future, since the story is set in late March of the year 1300, but actually written between 1308 and 1321. Caccio tells Dante: “Dopo lunga tencione / Verranno al sangue, e la parte selvaggia / Caccera l’altra con molta offesine” [After long contention they will come to blood, and the rustic party will drive out the other with much offence] (Inferno VI. 64-66). He refers here to the May day festivities of 1300, where there was bloodshed between two Guelph factions, the Bianchi and the Neri.

In June 1301, the Bianchi gained political control of Florence and banished the Neri from the city. 15 Caccio tells Dante more about this particular situation: “Poi appresso convien che questa caggia / infra tre soli, e che l’altra sormonti / Con la forza di tal che teste piaggia. ” [Then, through the power of one who presently is temporizing, that party is destined to fall within three years, and the other to prevail] (VI. 67-69). Caccio here refers to the fact that the exiled Neri turned to Pope Boniface VIII for help and they managed to regain control of Florence and passed severe sentences against over six hundred Bianchi.

Caccio predicts these events to happen within three years. 16 By deliberately setting the story in the past, Dante is able to incorporate such prophesies into the story. It is striking that Dante chooses Virgil, one of the most famous classical authors, to be his guide. Virgil has written a work containing a journey into the underworld as well. In his Aeneid, Virgil tells the story of Aeneas descending into the underworld. The fact that Virgil has already written about such a journey and therefore knows the way makes him the perfect guide.

Another possible reason for choosing Virgil is the great admiration that the author Dante has for the poet, which he refers to when they first meet in Canto I: “Tu se’ lo mio maestro e il mio autore: / Tu se’ solo colui da cui io tolsi / Lo bello stile che m’ha fatto onore. ” [You are my master and my author. You alone are he from whom I took the fair style that has done me honor. ] (Inferno I. 85-87). It is clear that La Divina Commedia belongs to the epic genre. However, the one thing that the work is missing, is an epic hero. Dante might be considered to be its hero, but he does not display much heroic behaviour.

His main task in the work seems to be describing what he sees as an observer: to keep a traveller’s journal as it were. In the sixteenth century, this lack of a hero caused scepticism in regarding the work as an epic. Others hailed Dante as the best heroic poet, even surpassing Homer. However, as we have seen in this chapter, there are so many ways in which La Divina Commedia can be described as an epic, that scholars nowadays see the work as belonging to this genre. 17 There are two important qualities that enable Milton’s Satan to act as the epic hero of Paradise Lost: freedom and free will.

In Milton’s day and age, individualism and liberty became important issues. The notion of freedom and equality often recurs in Paradise Lost, and in most instances this can be linked to Satan. Satan can be described as a free spirit and there seem to be no boundaries to his freedom; even the boundaries of Hell are hardly any 15 Alighieri, Dante. The Divine Comedy: Inferno 2 commentary. Trans. Charles S. Singleton. New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1970: pp. 101-102. 16 Alighieri, Dante. The Divine Comedy: Inferno 2 commentary. Trans. Charles S. Singleton. New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1970: p. 02. 17 Steadman, John. “Milton and Mazzoni: the Genre of the Divina Commedia”. The Huntington Library Quarterly. 23. 2 (1960): p. 108. restriction for him. But most of all, it is this notion of a new sort of freedom which enables Satan to become the hero of Paradise Lost: “Here at least / we shall be free” (I. 258-9). For Satan this means that he is able to start his rebellion in Heaven and it gives him the opportunity to start his quest to cause the Fall of Adam and Eve. The theme of free will is also important. We see that in Paradise Lost, Adam and Eve are meant to make mainly good choices.

Contrastingly, free will makes that Satan is only able to make bad choices. When taking into consideration only books I and II of the work, what we see is a rebel who fought for freedom: for himself and his peers. However, as the story continues, this heroic status of Satan becomes less likely. This chapter has shown that both La Divina Commedia and Paradise Lost can be regarded as belonging to the epic genre. Since Milton chose the epic as the structure to tell the tale of the War in Heaven and the Fall of Adam and Eve, one can validly bestow the title of ‘hero’ on Milton’s Satan. 8 However, this view is certainly not shared by all critics: Satan is by no means universally regarded as the hero of Paradise Lost. There is no easy answer to the question as to whether or not Satan deserves that title. 18 Steadman, John. “The Idea of Satan as the Hero of ‘Paradise Lost’. ” Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society. 120. 4 (1976): p. 225. 3. Satan Both La Divina Commedia and Paradise Lost are widely regarded as being masterpieces in the history of literature. Paradise Lost is an epic, and as we observed in the previous chapter, many have seen Satan as the hero of Paradise Lost.

This chapter will analyse whether or not this claim might be true: can Satan be the epic hero of Milton’s work? This question is the oldest and most persistent of controversies over Paradise Lost. 19 To begin with, this chapter will first pay attention to the views of the Pro-Satanists and the Anti-Satanists: critics supporting the notion that Satan is the hero of the poem and critics who assert he cannot be the hero. Then we will turn to Paradise Lost itself. In establishing the heroic status of Satan, three elements will be analysed in this chapter.

The first one is Satan’s actions: what actions does he undertake in Paradise Lost which can be considered heroic? Are there also actions which are the opposite of heroic? The second element to be analysed is appearance: Satan is described as still having his angelic features and bearing mighty weapons. Thirdly, Milton gives his Satan a complex character. After the Fall, Satan immediately establishes himself as the leader of the fallen angels and volunteers to travel out of Hell on a quest. Since Dante’s devil is in many respects the opposite of Milton’s Satan, Dante’s Luciferl will be used as a contrast.

It is sometimes supposed that the critical support for Satan began with the Romantics, but the notion that Satan is the hero of Paradise Lost goes as far back as John Dryden. Romantic critics, such as William Blake, Lord Byron and Percy Shelley argue that Satan was the hero of the story. 20 Of course, they essentially do have a point, when only taking into consideration books I and II of Paradise Lost. These contain many references to Satan’s fight for liberty and the bravery of his actions. Critics who have an ethical sympathy for Satan have been labelled Satanists. 1 Then there are also the critics who oppose this favourable view of Satan: they are called the Anti-Satanists. Anti-Satanists generally find Satan’s speeches pompous and ridiculous and his behaviour despicable. Furthermore, they also take into consideration what happens to Satan after the first two books, which clearly show Satan’s ethical and moral digression. And the 19 Steadman, John. “The Idea of Satan as the Hero of ‘Paradise Lost’. ” Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society. 120. 4 (1976): p. 253. 20

Carey, John. “Milton’s Satan”. The Cambridge Companion to Milton. Ed. Dennis Danielson. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1989: p. 132. 21 Wittreich, Joseph Anthony Jr. “The ‘Satanism’ of Blake and Shelley Reconsidered”. Studies in Philology. 65. 5 (1968): p. 817-818. view of Satan indeed changes and becomes less favourable. By the time the plot advances to book IV, the idea of Satan as the hero, if he ever was one, seems to be finished when Satan himself mentions: “Which way I fly is Hell; myself am Hell” (IV. 75).

Now that he is away from the other fallen angels, Satan realises the sorry state he is in. While in the eighteenth century the Romantic view of the work was quite strong, in the nineteenth century critics such as C. S Lewis, S. Musgrove and Charles Williams very much supported the Anti-Satanist view. Especially Lewis is very strong in his claim, stating for example that Milton could not foresee that his work would one day meet the simplicity of critics who take for granted things said by the father of lies and falsehood in public speeches to his troops. 2 However, the discussion between Anti-Satanists and Pro-Satanists still continues today; Pro-Satanists generally emphasise Satan’s courage, Anti-Satanists his selfishness and folly. Since disputability is generally advantageous to a work of literature, it certainly has done no harm to the popularity of the work throughout the centuries. 23 When looking at book I and book II of Paradise Lost, Satan may indeed be labelled an epic hero on account of his actions and the actions described in his speeches. He delivers heroic speeches to the other Fallen Angels, in which he bravely suggests to stand up and do something about the unjust way

God has treated him and the other fallen angels. Phrases such as making “a Heaven of Hell, a Hell of Heav’n” (I. 255) and “Better to reign in Hell than serve in Heav’n” (I. 263) seem very heroic indeed. Satan is the first character Milton mentions in his work, which together with the beginning in medias res makes Satan seem to be both heroic and sympathetic. By giving Satan the opportunity to express himself in this fashion in his speeches in the first two books, Satan becomes a comprehensible and acceptable character which is understandable.

Satan volunteers to leave Hell on a quest and, as a true hero, he sacrifices himself for his fellow angels: “That for the general safety he despised / His own” (II. 481-482). In Paradise Lost, Milton tells the story of the war in heaven and the Fall of Man, mainly from the devil’s point of view. This causes Satan to be the focus of attention when it comes to describing his heroic actions: he certainly plays a very important role in the work. Contrastingly, the devil’s role in La Divina Commedia is quite limited. We only encounter him when Dante and Virgil have to climb over him in the Ninth Circle of Hell in order to 22

Lewis, C. S. The Discarded Image: An Introduction to Medieval and Renaissance Literature. 1964. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000: p. 98. 23 Carey, John. “Milton’s Satan”. The Cambridge Companion to Milton. Ed. Dennis Danielson. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1989: pp. 132-133. continue their journey. When we look upon Milton’s Satan as an active evil, Dante’s Lucifer might be considered to be a passive evil. “Satan’s true being is his lack of being, his futility and nothingness”. 24 Dante intended his Satan to be empty and passive, almost reduced to nothing, as opposed to God’s energy.

He limits the role of the devil on purpose: Satan is almost the symbol of nothingness and can therefore have no substantial character in La Divina Commedia, quite contrary to Milton’s Satan. Milton starts his epic Paradise Lost at the moment when the rebellious angels have just fallen form Heaven. At first sight, the Fall does not seem to have had much of an impact on Satan’s appearance: …he above the rest In shape and gesture proudly eminent Stood like a Tow’r; his form had not yet lost All her original brightness (I. 589-592)

However, Milton uses the all-important words “not yet”; Satan’s angelic form is “not yet” lost, implying that this will happen later on in the poem. But for now, the only damage he seems to have suffered is to his face: “…but his face / Deep scars of Thunder had intrencht” (I. 600601). Milton gives him “Brows of dauntless courage” (I. 603) as well. Satan seems powerful and heroic when his armour is described, consisting of a massive spear and a “ponderous shield” (I. 284). Milton depicts Satan as having an almost regal air, which is nicely expressed in the description of Satan on his throne:

High on a throne of royal state, which far Outshone the wealth or Ormus and of Ind, Or where the gorgeous East with richest hand Showers on her kings barbaric pearl and gold, Satan exalted sat, (II. 1-5) However, Satan’s appearance will dramatically change for the worse: his actions against God result in a metamorphosis for both himself and the other fallen angels. Now their looks are in concordance with their character and behaviour: 24 Burton Russel, Jeffrey. Lucifer: The Devil in the Middle Ages. 1984. New York: Cornell University Press, 1988: p. 225

His arms clung to his Ribs, his Legs entwining Each other, till supplanted down he fell A monstrous Serpent on his Belly prone (X. 512-514) Satan does not make any true progression in the plot of Paradise Lost: he starts out as a hero, turns into a general and from that he digresses from a spy into a toad and eventually a snake. The description of what Milton’s Satan becomes after causing the Fall of Adam and Eve somewhat resembles the appearance of Dante’s Lucifer in La Divina Commedia, but only at the end of Milton’s work does Satan reach this state.

Milton’s Satan and Dante’s Lucifer seem to be complete opposites as Freccoro puts it when he describes Dante’s devil: “…far from finding him attractive, as we do the ‘curly-haired Byronic hero of Milton’, we are repelled by his bestiality and untouched by his tears”. 25 Dante’s Satan is immobile and located at the very centre of Hell. In the Christian-Platonic tradition, pure matter is that which is farthest from God and closest to non-being, being as far away from God as possible, Satan is almost pure matter and is composed of the densest weights in the cosmos. 6 That is why Satan is depicted by Dante as being a huge beast: ugly and awkward. He is neither human, nor animal. He has fallen from Divinity and has therefore fallen deeper than a human soul could have ever fallen, hence his position at the lowest level of Hell. Dante’s Satan has lost all his splendour. He has been turned from the most beautiful to the ugliest: “S’el fu si bel com’ elli e ora brutto” [If he was once beautiful as he is ugly now] (Inferno XXX. 34). What Milton’s Satan and Dante’s Lucifer have in common is that both were once beautiful, but in the end, they have become monsters.

Their sins and actions have not only corrupted their characters, it has deformed their appearance as well. Milton’s Satan may have begun as a hero and the opposite of Dante’s devil, in the end they do not seem to be so different anymore. There is a huge contrast in the appearance of Satan at the beginning of Paradise Lost and at the end of the poem. Milton’s Satan has turned into the same hideous creature as Dante’s devil is throughout La Divina Commedia. A possible explanation for this is that Milton made this contrast on purpose, in order to create a stronger hatred for Satan.

William Blake stated that Milton was on the devil’s side without realising it: “Note: The reason Milton wrote in fetters when / he wrote of Angels & God, and at liberty when / of Devils & Hell, is 25 Freccoro, John. “The Sign of Satan”. Modern Language Notes. 80. 1 (1965): p. 11. Burton Russel, Jeffrey. Lucifer: The Devil in the Middle Ages. 1984. New York: Cornell University Press, 1988: p. 231. 26 because he was a true Poet and / of the Devils [sic] party without knowing it. ” (plate 6). 27 However, it is more likely that Milton deliberately created this transformation.

Satan has some kind of second Fall in the plot of Paradise Lost. While at the beginning he may fit the description of an epic hero, as the story advances he experiences a strong regression and all his heroic traits are reduced to nothing. The reader dislikes Satan more after his true character emerges than if he had been a bad character from the beginning. As opposed to Milton, Dante’s description of the devil immediately reveals his evil character. In La Divina Commedia, Dante has given his monstrous demon three heads with three different colours: white, yellow and black.

Satan was once glorious and white, shone red in his power and eventually turned black. 28 Satan may be considered the negation of God, the evil opposite to God’s goodness. Satan’s three heads reflect the three persons bound in one entity, a parody on the Holy Trinity. 29 God resembles everything that Satan wanted to have but has not achieved. Satan is in darkness, God is in light; God is everywhere, Satan is not able to move as he is frozen in ice. Another parody lies in the fact that all six eyes in the three heads are crying, which can be considered a reference to the tears of Christ on the Cross. 0 The colours of the three heads also refer to the colours of the fruits on the mulberry tree, as found in the Bible in Luke 7:16. The fruit from the mulberry tree begins as white, then turns red and eventually black as they grow. However, due to different readings from St. Augustine and St. Ambrose, these colours were often used to refer to both Christ and the devil throughout the Middle Ages and into the Renaissance. 31 Dante may have given Satan these three colours, to draw attention to the fact that Satan’s appearance can be seen as a parody on Christ and the Cross.

Next to the outer appearance of Satan in Paradise Lost and La Divina Commedia, the third aspect of Satan which deserves our attention is his character. Milton depicts Satan as a complex character playing an important role in the work. He represents an active evil, with his own feelings and emotions. This character does not only show in Satan’s actions; Milton gives the devil a voice in Satan’s ‘inner monologues’, where Satan mentions insights such as 27 Taken from: Blake, William. Het Huwelijk van Hemel en Aarde. Trans. Sylvia Koetsier. Utrecht: Erven J.

Bijleveld, 2001. All quotes from The Marriage of Heaven and Hell have been taken from this edition. 28 Burton Russel, Jeffrey. Lucifer: The Devil in the Middle Ages. 1984. New York: Cornell University Press, 1988: p. 232 29 Cassel, Anthony K. “Dante’s Satan”. Italica. 56. 4 (1979): p. 341. 30 Carey, John. “Milton’s Satan”. The Cambridge Companion to Milton. Ed. Dennis Danielson. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1989: p. 132. 31 Freccoro, John. “The Sign of Satan”. MLN. 80. 1 (1965): p. 16. “Which way I fly is Hell; myself am Hell” (IV. 75).

Another instant where Satan shows some deep emotions is when he sees Adam and Eve together in Paradise: “Sight hateful, sight tormenting! Thus these two Imparadis’t in one another’s arms The happier Eden, shall enjoy their fill Of bliss on bliss, while I to Hell am thrust, Where neither joy nor love, but fierce desire, Among our other torments not the least Still unfulfill’d with pain of longing pines,” (IV. 505-511) In these lines, Satan laments his fate, being cast down in Hell where there is no love and joy. This quote is one of the many instances where Satan reveals he has a fully developed and emotional character.

However, in the first two books of Paradise Lost, where Satan can be seen as an epic hero, Satan does not have these particular insights: he has speeches filled with bravoure. It is only later on in the poem that he starts to state his feelings, when his digression has already advanced. He even starts to doubt whether it has been a good idea in the first place to start his ‘heroic’ rebellion against God: Ah wherefore! He deserved no such return From me, whom he created what I was In that bright eminence, and with his good Upbraided non; nor was his service hard. (IV. 42-45)

As opposed to Milton, Dante does not give his Satan much character. He is described in Canto XXXIV, when Dante and Virgil enter the last and most inner circle of Hell, the Ninth Circle. This is the place for those who sinned against their benefactors. Of Satan’s character, Dante tells us little. The most striking thing to note here is that Satan is crying: “Con sei occhi piangea, e per tre menti / gocciava ‘l pianto e sanguinosa bava” [With six eyes he was weeping, and down over three chins dripped tears and bloody foam] (Inferno XXXIV. 54-55). However, these tears do not seem to be tears of remorse or regret.

He does not have the ability or the power to speak, all he is allowed to be is an immobile, hideous creature, only able to express himself by his tears. Therefore, the tears seem to be tears of frustration and rage and, as mentioned above, a parody on the tears of Christ. These tears form a contrast with the tears of Milton’s Satan; tears which seem to be filled with emotion: “Thrice he assayed, and thrice in spite of scorn, / Tears such as Angels weep, burst forth: at last / Words interwove with sighs found out their way ” (I. 619-621). The different ways in which Milton and Dante have their Satan cry is very striking.

It has been mentioned above that Dante depicts his Satan as being some kind of animal, stressing his bestiality. Milton stresses the humanity in his Satan, giving him a humanlike appearance and a complex and emotional character. Satan as a figure is neither human nor animal, but Milton and Dante have done the complete opposite in this respect. Also, these tears indicate that Satan may not be such a hero after all: these tears are selfish tears. Being selfish and to feel sorry for oneself is not a good characteristic for a hero. It is clear that Dante’s Devil contains no heroic traits whatsoever.

He is not given much character and no voice at all, unlike Milton’s Satan. All through the journey in the Inferno, the writer Dante lets the character Dante tell what he feels and what he sees as he travels through Hell and encounters many different souls. However, when the duo meets Satan, this is not the case. We get a short description of Satan’s physical appearance and his surroundings, and the character Dante does not give his opinion of what he sees; he remains almost silent. Dante stresses the bestiality of his Satan and therefore does not give him the ability to speak or express himself.

Milton gives his Satan many opportunities in his speeches and inner monologues, so that Satan is able to establish himself as almost human. For that reason, one is even more tempted in labelling him as a hero. We almost seem to forget that he still is the devil. After Satan’s metamorphosis into a snake, he resembles Dante’s devil: he is unable to speak and has no real character anymore. He is reduced from a humanlike figure of a hero into something monstrous and animalistic. Although in books I and II Satan seems to posses many heroic qualities, it seems difficult to argue that he is indeed a hero.

His speeches may seem very brave, but are they really sincere? One has a point in saying that it is brave to stand up to a tyrannous leader and fight for freedom and liberty. And in the mind of Satan and the other fallen angels, God is indeed a tyrant. However, the reader of Paradise Lost will not agree with this: God could never be a tyrant. Furthermore, as will be discussed in chapter 4, the motive for the rebellion against God is not heroic at all: it is caused by the sin of pride. And when Satan embarks on his ‘heroic’ quest, he is motivated by revenge and jealousy.

He himself mentions in one of his speeches that they will not have to fight God again; instead they will reach their goals by “fraud or guile” (I. 646). So, the Satanist point of view seems to be feasible only when looking at books I and II in general: it is a fight for freedom. However, on closer inspection, there are many points in the poem in which Satan is stripped of his potential heroic status. Satan’s heroism may be described as being a perversion of true heroism: many of the heroic qualities displayed, such as his bravery, his willingness to go on an adventure, his capacity to be a true eader, are morally neutral: they can be used for both good and evil. Since Satan started out in Heaven as one of God’s angels, he may already have possessed these qualities which we call heroic, but they have been corrupted and can now only be used for evil. In order to further investigate this notion of Satan as an epic hero, chapters 3 and 4 will pay attention to the function of Hell and sin in relation to the hero’s epic quest. 4. Hell This chapter discusses how Milton describes Hell in and how this can be related to the notion of Satan as the hero of Paradise Lost.

The universe of Milton seems to have a very loose structure: underneath Heaven there is Hell and Chaos is in between. Earth hangs down from Heaven by a golden chain and is later on in the epic connected to Hell by a bridge. There is no perceivable order, or logic, to the way Milton chose to arrange his universe. Dante, however, has clear ideas as to where his Hell is located in the universe and his Hell, Purgatory and Heaven consist of neatly balanced concentric circles. The carefully structured and funnelshaped Hell in Dante’s La Divina Commedia stands in clear contrast to Paradise Lost.

In Dante’s work, Hell consists of nine concentric circles, where souls are punished according to the sins they have committed in life. There is an increase in the sinfulness and wickedness of the souls as they are distributed over the nine circles according to the measure of their trespass, with Satan located in the ninth circle. The text over the entrance gate of Dante’s Hell makes it very clear that Hell has been created by God: “Giustizia mosse il mio alto Fattore; / Fecemi la divina Podestate, / La somma Sapienza e ‘l primo Amore. [Justice moved my High Maker: the Divine Power made me, the supreme wisdom, and the primal love. ] (III. 4-6). So, there is a clear contrast between Dante’s Hell and Milton’s Hell: a strictly organised Hell as opposed to a chaotic Hell without a structure. It is this lack of proper structure which allows Satan to try and achieve his heroic status. There are not many restrictions preventing him from doing this. This chapter will begin by giving a description of Milton’s Hell and how it is placed in the universe.

After that, the same will briefly be done for Dante’s Hell as he has described it in La Divina Commedia. Thirdly, we will take a look at the position of Satan in the Hell of both La Divina Commedia and Paradise Lost, in order to investigate how the structure of Hell facilitates Satan’s heroic adventures. It is not unusual for an epic hero to be placed in Hell or the underworld: some famous examples are to be found in the Aeneid and the Odyssey. However, these epic tales are never staged entirely in Hell or the Underworld, only part of the tale is about the journey of the hero into the Underworld.

For Satan, it is somewhat different: he is thrown into Hell involuntarily, as opposed to Aeneas and Odysseus, for whom Hell is only a small part of the adventure. Satan travels out of Hell and returns to it during the poem and it forms the basis of the journey, as opposed to Aeneas and Odysseus, who have Earth as their basis. In Paradise Lost, Milton gives many descriptions of Hell as a place of agony: dark and yet filled with fire. It is a truly awful place: A Dungeon horrible, on all sides round As one great Furnace flam’d, yet from those flames No light, but rather darkness visible Serv’d only to discover sights of woe,

Regions of sorrow, doleful shades, where peace And rest can never dwell, hope never comes That comes to all: but torture without end (I. 61-68) There is fire in Hell, but yet it casts nothing but darkness: Seest thou yon dreary Plain, forlorn and wild, The seat of desolation, void of light, Save what the glimmering of these livid flames Casts pale and dreadful? (I. 180-184) Milton’s Hell consists of natural elements; for example, Hell has lakes and hills, which Milton even makes more realistic when referring to geographical locations on Earth when he compares them to the “thund’ring Etna” (I. 33). However, they are used in an unnatural manner: there is a lake of fire with fire that does not give light but darkness. This may be because the fallen angels have destroyed the natural order, so that now they are forced to dwell in a place where nature seems to make no sense and is chaotic. However, this lack of order is not a great problem, since it gives the opportunity to manifest himself as leader and organiser. In one of his speeches, Satan establishes his heroic status as first among his peers. Nobody will fight for the power of Hell as they have fought for the power in Heaven: … here there is no good For which to strive, no strife can grow up there From Faction; for none sure will claim in hell Presedence, none, whose portion is so small Of present pain, that with ambitious mind Will covet more. (II. 30-35) This statement makes Satan something of a martyr as well: since he takes upon himself the role of leader, this means he will have to carry the heaviest load of the pain of Hell. It is rather heroic, to sacrifice himself like that: … but who here Will envy whom the highest place exposes Foremost to stand against the Thunder’s aim Your Bulwark, and condemns to the greatest share

Of endless pain? (II. 26-30) One could question, however, his motives here. The devil is the Father of all lies and this might well be a lie, in order to gain control as the leader of Hell. The first rebellion was against God in Heaven and where there was a rebellion once, there could be one again. With this statement of the leader of Hell carrying the heaviest burden, Satan implies that it would not be wise for the other fallen angels to rival his leadership. However, Milton does not mention the fallen angels being tortured much, so it might not even be true what Satan says in his speech.

Yet, where this Hell is located, one cannot tell, since Milton explains this in a manner which does not actually say anything about distances and dimensions. Hell in Paradise Lost is described as a place which actually exists, described in detail with many features such as hills, plains and lakes. However, Milton describes his Hell also in a more supernatural manner when he uses the phrase “bottomless perdition” (I. 47). Perdition signifies something which lasts for eternity and the word ‘bottomless’ which accompanies it seems to stress this notion of defying both time and space; this perdition has no end in time, it is for eternity.

To give another example, one encounters the words “the vast and boundless Deep” (I. 147) in a description of Hell. Hell seems to have no borders and it is infinitely large. Yet is does have walls and gates: “Our prison strong, this huge convex of Fire, / Outrageous to devour, immures us round / Ninefold, and gates of burning Adamant / Barr’d over us prohibit all egress” (II. 434-437). We have already seen that Hell is described as a ‘real’ location, with lakes, mountains and an entire city.

This contradiction of Hell being borderless, but nevertheless having gates and being endless, but still containing specific features, is a good example of Milton playing with space. Satan travels out of Hell through the gates, travels over a bridge and jumps over the wall surrounding the Garden of Eden. In these instances, Milton uses tangible elements in the journey, which makes the journey fit the description of a typical journey from one place to another. However, Milton also incorporates aspects in the description of the journey which defy the rules of time and space. We see hat Hell is described as ‘boundless’ and a moment later its walls and the gates are referred to. Milton invented a device for retaining the old and accepted ideas of a finite universe yet also expressing the new consciousness of space. He is perhaps the first writer who used the word ‘space’ in its full modern sense. 32 Milton mentions that the fallen angels are “As far removed from God and the light of Heav’n / As from the Center thrice to the utmost Pole” (I. 73-74). As Milton describes the location of Hell, it is supposed to be three times the distance from the Center, i. e. he earth, to the utmost pole. This is a distance that cannot be measured, but only imagined: it is somewhere between infinity and physical reality. Furthermore, Milton describes the amount of time that is takes for the fallen angels to plummet into Hell as being as long as “Nine times the Space that measures Day and Night / To mortal men…” (I. 50-51). In this fragment, the length of time is described in concepts with which one is familiar. However, the time that measures day and night can indicate a variety of timescales and still does not make clear how long this Fall lasts.

There is no day and night in Hell, and the perception of time there cannot be compared or related to a timescale conceivable to mankind. Hell has no borders, no distances and there seems to be no time as we know it, but still it has walls and a gate. This is not a Hell from which it is impossible to escape, as opposed to Dante’s Hell. The movement of Milton’s Satan is quite different from that of Dante’s devil. The devil is not allowed to move, being frozen in ice. He is not only confined to the deepest pit of Hell, he is so immovable that Dante and Virgil even have to climb over him in order to continue their journey.

The other devils in La Divina Commedia have more freedom: they can move around in Hell and are able to travel to Earth and gather souls there. With this play with time and space, Milton steps away from the traditional order of the universe according the medieval point of view. However, he does not choose one view of the universe as the basis for the universe of Paradise Lost. This may have something to do with the scientific view of the universe in Milton’s time, since the heliocentric view was not yet widely accepted.

Milton had two planetary systems available to choose from: the Ptolemaic, in which Earth is the centre of the universe, and the Copernican system, in which Earth and the other planets rotate around the Sun. Milton does not choose one particular model, but 32 Lewis, C. S. The Discarded Image: An Introduction to Medieval and Renaissance Literature. 1964. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000: p. 100. alludes to both of them to form a unique universe in Paradise Lost. Milton’s universe seems to be geocentric and heliocentric simultaneously33: … whither the prime Orb,

Incredible how swift, had thither roll’d Diurnal, or this less voluble Earth By shorter flight to th’East, had left him there Arraying with reflected Purple and Gold The Clouds that on his Western Throne attend; (IV. 592-597) Milton expresses this same notion in the conversation between the archangel Raphael and Adam. Adam asks Raphael about the universe and about the movement of the sun and the stars. Raphael does not give a direct answer to these questions, but rather states that God does not want to reveal this information to others and, in fact, Raphael himself does not have the answer: the rest From Man or Angel the great Architect Did wisely to conceal, and not divulge His secrets to be scann’d by them who ought Rather admire (VIII. 71-74) By indicating that God does not want anyone to know the truth about the structure of the cosmos, Milton does not choose a side in the heliocentric/geocentric discussion that was still going on at the time. Furthermore, by not answering Adam’s question, Milton, and indirectly God, could not be proven wrong in the future. Milton w

Sir Lancelot is the greatest knight at the Round Table. Lancelot is Arthur’s best friend and yet is completely different in that he performs heroic acts by accident. Lancelot is too humble to allow all his heroic acts to improve his self-image. A hero is someone who engages in a heroic act risking or losing his or her life to save someone else’s. Sir Lancelot is a hero. Lancelot is brave. Lancelot could be called brave because he wasn’t afraid to kill people. If a situation needed immediate action Lancelot was there to battle another knight.

Lancelot chose to go on adventures putting aside the dangers he might face. He fought willingly for people, and stood up for himself when he met the witches and battled other knights. Lancelot is loyal. Being loyal means showing support to someone. Lancelot stayed loyal to the one girl he loved even though she was already married. A girl asked Lancelot to fight for her dad and she would free him, and he courageously fought for her dad and didn’t try to get away.

Lancelot was loyal to King Arthur by fighting along side him and joining him at the Round Table. Sir Lancelot is a hero. He is considered to be one of the greatest and most trusted of King Arthur’s knights and he played a huge part in King Arthur’s victories. Lancelot is a hero because he battles with honor and strategy, he understands how to win. Lancelot was heroic because he never failed in gentleness, courage, or courtesy. No matter who he was he still served others.